You're on Your Own, Pal
by leafs nation
Summary: Lee has had enough of Kenny! His dirty stache, his no-nonsense attitude and his know-it-all personality! He can't take it anymore! But when Kenny takes his family and abandons the rest of them at the Motor-Inn, separating one group into three, can they all survive?
1. Game Time

"Can we play something else?" Duck complained, grunting as once again his dog had to go to jail.

"Why?" Clementine asked, rounding her clothes iron around the board and smirking as she collected another $200. "This is fun!"

"Yeah, maybe for you…" Duck mumbled, trying to roll doubles so that his character could get out of its prison cell. He really wasn't in the mood for paying a handful of bail money right now.

Ben reluctantly moved his car six spaces around the board. The teenager groaned and put his face into his palm as he landed on Boardwalk, giving Clementine the rental cost. What could be worse than this?

…Oh, right. Zombie apocalypse, yeah.

"Hey, how come you got to be the race car? I've been stuck as the dog last time!" Duck asked, waving to Lee as he approached.

"Ben won last time, remember? Besides, someone has to be the dog. We don't have any other pieces anyway," Clementine replied, smiling as she collected the free parking money.

Looking at his properties, Ben sighed. Sure, Clem and Duck were great kids by all accounts, and he was grateful that Lee had managed to find the game in one of the motel rooms, but something was eating him up inside.

Sure, the bandits may not have been the most trustworthy or reliable people in the world, but what choice did he have? If he hadn't made a deal, not only would he never find out if his friends were alive, but the bandits would come into their camp guns blazing. As long as he kept the deal going, he figured they'd be safe.

"Lee? Can I have a word?" Kenny called, beckoning for Lee to join him and Katjaa over by the RV. Kenny certainly didn't look too pleased.

Clementine frowned, as she wanted to show Lee her leaf drawing that she had made earlier that day. "Why do you think they fight so much?"

Shrugging his shoulders, Ben organized his play money in order from least to greatest. "They're probably just deciding on what's best for the group. I wouldn't worry about it too much, Clem."

"I hope so…" Clementine replied, sounding very unsure. The eight year old was nothing if not perceptive – even more so after the whole dairy incident. She was whole-heartedly glad of Lee's actions that day, such as trying to save Larry, not killing either of the St. John brothers and not taking stuff from the abandoned station wagon. His morals were in the right place, it seemed.

Kenny, on the other hand, was scaring her. She didn't want to admit it, but she wasn't becoming too much of a fan of his. Anger just came so easily to him, and he took it out on Lee most of all. It seemed sometimes that Kenny was even angrier at Lee than Lily, and that was no small feat.

"Clementine! It's your turrnnnnnn!" Duck interrupted, holding out the dice in front of her face. Taking them out of his hands, Clementine went to roll the dice, but not before he heard Lee shout for everyone to come over to the RV.

"Game over, I guess," Clementine stated, folding up the board and putting it back into the box. Duck thought he was being sneaky, but Clementine caught him and gave a scolding gesture as he sheepishly but the race car back inside the Monopoly box. He was so close too…

"What's going on?" Carley inquired, standing in between Lee and Clementine as the rest of the group (minus Lily) gathered around in a circle.

Lee, for his part, didn't answer. Instead, he just looked solemnly at Kenny, who didn't seem to notice Lee's disappointed expressions. The ex-history professor then bent down to Clementine's height, in the same gesture that he used whenever he had to tell her something important.

"Clem…" he started, unsure of how she would take this or if she would even consider this. "You trust me, don't you?"

"Yeah… why?"

"Well…"

"Oh for Christ's sakes, Lee! Just spit it out! We're splitting up, going our separate ways! Kaput!"

Lee sighed audibly as he shot Kenny an exasperated look. "You really don't know the meaning of subtlety do you?"

The rest of the group gasped, even Katjaa, who apparently didn't know what they were planning. "Ken! You never told me this! Where did this come from?!"

"This has been a long time coming, hon," Kenny replied, almost snarling at Lee, "this guy's so idealistic that he can't make the tough decisions. Well the safety of my family comes first. I ain't gonna sit around this motel any longer, not with those damn bandits attacking here every night. And I'm certainly not putting my family's well-being in the hands of this guy."

Lee looked visibly hurt by his words, and Clementine squeezed his hand in a comforting gesture. This whole thing was tearing him up inside.

"What the fuck is going on out here?" Lily called, walking towards the group in confusion.

"We're leavin', that's what," Kenny replied, his moustache getting more frazzled by the second.

Holding her hands out and going on about how stupid Kenny's plan was, Lee brought Clementine over to the side so that they could talk in private. He needed to make sure that if she was prepared to do this, that she was alright going off with him instead of Kenny or anyone else.

"You okay?" he asked, trying to ease his way in, but Clementine was having none of it.

"Why are you guys doing this? Isn't it safer to be together?"

Looking at the ground, Lee realized that he'd rather be in any other situation than the one they were in right now – but he knew there would be no going back. Not after the spat that he and Kenny had while out looking for supplies.

"Clementine, sweet pea… I can't promise this is better, but having Kenny, Lily and I all in the same group is just going to make things complicated. I'm not sure if you understand but-"

"I do," Clementine interjected, once again proving to Lee that she was smarter than she let on.

"Alright," he continued, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, I wanted to ask you where you wanted to go. Kenny's got his family and the RV, so you'd be safe. Or, you could go with Lily and whoever decides to go along with her. What do you think?"

"What about you?" she asked, terribly surprised that he didn't even mention himself.

"This isn't about me, Clem. I want whatever's best for you."

"Then I choose to go with you. It's like we're a team, like you said!" Clementine placed a hand on Lee's shoulder, as if she was assuring him instead of it being the other way around.

Inside, Lee was genuinely relieved that she wanted to come with him. He wouldn't have had much of a purpose left if the little girl she met all those months ago wasn't around anymore.

"Lee? Can we talk for a minute?"

Uh oh. Here it comes… the dreaded Carley conversation.

"Look, I meant to tell you. All three of you," he apologized, motioning as well to Ben and Lily. "But it honestly just came out of nowhere! One minute we were getting supplies, the next he starts telling me how he'd be better off without me slowing the rest of you down. What was I supposed to say? We're getting left behind at the motel?"

"That would've been a start," Lily mumbled, folding her arms over her chest.

Carley shook her head. "Ignore her," she remarked, also folding her arms over her chest in persistence, "but just know – we're coming with you. If Kenny thinks he can take on the world by himself, then let him. All the power to him."

"Jesus, Carley…"

"What? He's been on your ass ever since you met him, and his ego's gotten too big for his own good. We'll give him some medical supplies and ammunition, say our goodbyes and have them be on their way."

"Um, that might be a prob-" Ben started, but nobody heard him talking. The sounds of the bandits swears and arrows pierced through the sky, causing havoc among the survivors. Lee and Clementine hid behind one of the garbage cans for what little protection it could give, while Carley, Ben and Lily tried hiding behind one of the abandoned cars that was sitting in the parking lot. Kenny was already firing back at the bandits from behind the RV, while his family shook and shivered behind him.

"Stay close to me," Lee told Clementine, picking up the sniper rifle that was sitting a few feet away from him and waiting for the barrage to stop before popping out. He shot about three of the bandits in the head, all of which succumbed to the blow dealt to them. Almost as soon as the third man went down, another screamed in pure terror as a walker chomped on his neck; sinking its teeth into the vulnerable area.

A little ways away, Lily had tossed Ben a pistol that she had grabbed on her way out of her room. "Wh-why are you giving me this? I can't shoot!"

"Well, you can either keep up your bitching and die in the motel parking lot, or you can get off your ass and help! Your choice!" she replied sternly, firing off a few rounds at a pair of walkers that had managed to break through. "Shit! Carley, we need to get out of here now!"

"Wait! We can't just leave everyone! What about Lee and Clementine?!"

"They'll be fine! Just come on!" Lily grunted as more of their enemies broke through, hearing the shots and coming out of the woods like a dinner bell was calling them. Their time was slipping by the second.

Meanwhile, Lee was slowly running low on ammo.

"Don't suppose you've got any bullets on you, do you Clem?"

"Uh-uh… Just a rock,"

"Damn. Alright, we need to get back to the others and get out of here – _KENNY?!_"

He stared in shock and surprise as Kenny pulled his whole family into the vehicle and started the engine, trying his best not to look at Lee in the eyes. Even though Lee could tell he would regret doing this, he couldn't forgive him for it. Not this shit.

Kenny drove straight through the fence of the motor-inn, running over bandits and walkers alike. The gaping hole left in the barricade was a welcome mat for the lurkers, who came flooding in like a waterfall.

The situation was becoming grim. Lee knew he had to act fast, grabbing Clementine's hand and running up the stairs. He knew that there was a room on the upper floor of the complex that still could be locked if he wanted to, so they sprinted inside and shut the door – praying that Carley, Lily and Ben would make it out safe.

As Kenny silently drove off, with Katjaa staring aimlessly out the window, Duck sat in the back of the RV, turning the race car over in his hands that he managed to pilfer away when Clementine wasn't looking.

Right now, to Duck anyways, that little gimmick seemed to be just as much a betrayal as leaving their friends behind at the motor-inn.


	2. On the move

"Do you think they're gone now?"

Taking a look through the eyehole on the door, Lee's answer was a definite no. There were two of the walkers clawing at the door; their rotten limbs banging on the wooden frame. He couldn't see past them, but he was pretty sure there were more of the creatures just roaming around in the parking lot. Lee just hoped that Carley made it out okay.

There really wasn't any way that they could get inside, but Lee decided to brace the door anyway – just in case. Together, he and Clementine moved a table set in front of the door, with the girl making sure that she didn't cut her finger open again. There were no first aid kits around here this time.

"Damn it…" Lee remembered, cursing his misfortune. "We left most of the medicine and guns on the RV."

"What are we gonna do?" Clementine asked, sitting on the edge of the bed as Lee paced back and forth.

"I guess we wait it out. But if that doesn't work…"

No, Lee didn't want it to come to that. Clementine had already had numerous close calls with walkers, and he didn't want her to have any more if he could help it. As long as they stuck together, they'd be safe. Right?

They sat in that motel room for what seemed like hours, just mindlessly staring up at the ceiling or getting some rest. Lee occasionally looked over at Clementine and smiled sadly. He knew this was hard on her – not knowing what happened to everyone else. Sometimes he forgot just how young the kid was. But that wasn't what really bugged Lee.

How was he supposed to explain to her that they couldn't go looking for her parents now? There was no way of getting to Savannah on foot – that would take days, and even if they knew which way to go there would always be the risk of getting caught. If only Kenny hadn't taken that damn RV…

Standing up, Lee decided to go check if their walker companions were still waiting outside. Squinting through the eyehole again, Lee was relieved to see that there were none, though he'd still need to check if there were any behind the wall.

"Clem, wake up sweet pea," he nudged the girl on the shoulder, and she groggily opened her eyes.

"Is it dinner time already?" she asked sleepily, and Lee chuckled, shaking his head.

"No bud, but we might be able to make a break for it. We need to be careful though," he led her to the door, moving the table out of the way and slowly undoing the lock. "You ready?"

"Mhmm."

Lee slowly opened the door, holding his pistol in front of him at all times. He scanned the corridor and made sure that there weren't any undead creeping about. Once he saw that the area was clear, he motioned for Clementine to follow him down the stairs, going very slowly as to not draw any unwanted attention. A few of the steps creaked underneath their combined weight, and Lee grimaced, but thankfully nothing came.

"Hopefully Lily still had some stuff in her room," Lee muttered, opening the door to her quarters and searching underneath the bed. Luckily for them she still had some supplies – a small box of antibiotics, some Band-Aids, some leftover rations and a couple of water bottles.

"Here!" Clementine unzipped her backpack and began to place the items inside, but frowning as she checked through the rest of the contents.

"What's the matter, Clem?"

"I can't find my chalk drawings! I made one of everybody at the camp, but now they're all gone!" she said, disappointed as she had wanted to give Lee one of the drawings after she had finished.

Lee rubbed her head affectionately and told her to follow, walking out of the room and back out to the parking lot. "It'll give you something to do once we find a safe area. You can draw as much as you'd like!"

"Not now that everyone's gone though…" she mumbled, causing Lee's insides to tighten a little bit. God, he just hoped they were alright. The two of them marched over to the fence and looked behind them one last time to make sure nobody remained.

"This way," Lee instructed, lifting Clementine up and over a shorter area of the fence and following after she was safely on the ground.

They had the cover of darkness on their side, but in a way that just made everything seem even creepier. A rustle in the trees would cause them to flinch, and a body on the ground would cause them to reel back in terror. The light of the moon was their only companion, guiding them along a path that they didn't know. They never stopped moving, never stopped running… only resting if they knew that the area was safe enough.

After about a week's worth of being on the move, Clem and Lee finally came upon a beige cabin-like building that seemed to be abandoned. It had a front porch that wrapped around two sides of the house, with a rocking chair and some overgrown plants adorning the garden. Two of the windows were smashed to pieces, and part of the front lawn had been singed away, but so far the place seemed pretty secure. The two of them crept silently up the narrow pathway to the front door and looked inside one of the windows. Empty – except for some old furniture and a few books scattered around.

"Doubt we're gonna find any food in here," Lee mused, scratching his chin in disappointment.

"Yeah, but we'd be safe here, wouldn't we?"

"Let's check the place out before drawing any conclusions, okay?"

As slowly and silently as he could, Lee opened the door (which luckily wasn't locked) and walked inside, Clementine right behind him. They checked every hallway, room and closet they could find, and not a single trace of a person or walker could be found. Why was this place so abandoned?

"Maybe the owners went to the city when all this started happening," Lee guessed, taking a seat on the couch across from Clementine. Truthfully, he was glad that she had suggested seeking shelter here, because he was flat out exhausted. He would've passed out right there if it wasn't for the apocalypse.

"Do you think we can go look for my parents soon?" Clementine asked, putting her hands in her lap and dangling her legs off the chair. "They should still be in Savannah."

"I know, Clem, but…" Lee stopped halfway through his sentence at Clementine's downcast expression. He knew this was really eating him up inside, but what else could he do? He prided himself over telling it how it was with this girl, and though he wasn't completely honest about what he thought happened to her parents, he needed to keep hope and morale alive.

"How about we talk about getting there when we have a plan – just when we're absolutely sure about what we're doing. Sound fair to you?"

Perking up a little bit, Clem nodded her head and began to open her backpack. Curious, Lee watched as she pulled out a crayon drawing that she had obviously made.

"Can I see?" Lee asked, holding up the picture in direct sunlight to get a better look. As soon as he realized what it was, Lee grinned approvingly. In it was Clementine and himself sitting in a grassy meadow, with the sun shining on the horizon and a flock of birds up in the sky.

"This is awesome, sweet pea. When did you make it?"

"When we were at the Motor-Inn! I made one for Carley, Duck and Ben too, but I didn't get to give it to them…"

"Listen, sweetie," Lee began, wiping the beads of sweat off of his forehead as he sat up straight, "I know you're worried about them. Hell, I am too. But we can't let our emotions get the better of us – we can't focus on things we can't control. Does that make any sense?"

"Not really," she admitted, rubbing her arm lightly.

Lee took the girl's hand in his and looked her straight in the eye, grinning sadly. "We're gonna face some bad stuff out there, and we need to work together to survive. We're a team, remember? You and me."

Clementine nodded solemnly, trying hard to look as tough as she could – but Lee could tell she was frightened. And perhaps it was a good thing that she was afraid of them, as being too bold could get you killed out here. But there were still some things that he needed to teach her before something really bad happened.

"You need to know how to protect yourself…" he started, holding out his pistol in the palm of his hand.

_Meanwhile…_

"Fuckin' run! Don't stop, just keep moving!" Lilly yelled, turning around occasionally to shoot down a walker that got too close. But she knew that she was running out of ammo quickly, and it wouldn't take too long before they had to start using… unconventional weapons. Large, fallen tree branches, metal tools, that sort of thing. She just hoped they'd be able to escape their pursuers before they had to resort to hand-to-hand fighting.

Besides, knowing Ben, he'd just end up messing up entirely.

The college kid was terrified, but he couldn't let his fear paralyze him this time. It was a good thing that he'd taken up cross-country as well as band in school! He could keep up with the best of them.

Carley, on the other hand, wasn't doing so well. She had refused the rations that Lee had handed out the other day, so the only thing she had had to eat over the last few days were a couple of granola bars. Her energy was draining by the second, but like her companions, she couldn't stop moving. One falter could be the death of her, literally.

They needed to find some sort of shelter, and quickly. The walkers were gaining on the trio, and they didn't know how much fight they had left in them. Lilly didn't even know why she was still trying to survive – after all, the last person that she had cared about was bludgeoned in that meat locker, destroying two lives in the process. Honestly, she couldn't give two shits about what happened to Kenny at this point. Hell, a large part of her wished that the bastard got left on the side of the road and fed to the horde. But… she couldn't bring herself to judge the rest of his family. Katjaa never meant for any of this to happen, and Duck… well, how could anyone be angry with that kid? He was a free spirit, that was for certain.

Lilly wasn't too concerned about Lee and Clem, but Carley was terrified. She and him had gotten pretty close over the past couple of months, and though they never admitted any feelings to each other, she had been considering it that day. Carley knew that the little girl was in good hands, but still – it was just the two of them, out in the middle of god knows where! Hopefully, someday they'd all find each other again.

Until then, they needed to find some place to hide. Where better than an old restaurant in Macon?


	3. A duck out of water

Something felt weird. Usually, the young boy had no trouble passing out like a light when it was time to hit the hay. His mother was constantly saying how easy-going he was for such a young age.

But tonight, Duck stared out the window of the RV, listening to the soft breathing of his parents who were sleeping on the pullout mattress. His hand was placed on the glass, and he was sure that he was smudging it, but none of that mattered. Heck, what mattered more nowadays than your family anyway?

He'd just turned eleven a couple of days ago (or at least he thought he did, nobody was really sure what day it was anymore), but he didn't feel special like he used to. There wasn't going to be a big celebration with his friends, and there wasn't going to be any of his mom's famous chocolate almond brownies (it was a tradition that they'd had for a while). While he did miss those days, he could not bring himself to think about them anymore. What was the point? His friends were most likely gone anyway.

Duck was starting to have doubts about what his father was telling him. Ever since they left the Motor-Inn, he wouldn't answer any of Duck's questions directly – whether Clementine and the rest were alive, why they left or anything like that. Instead, Kenny just kept on saying how they needed to get to the coast as quickly as possible.

Why? They didn't even _have _a boat, and it's not like he could guarantee there were still some around. Duck wasn't as dumb as people thought he was – often he just wanted the attention or someone to talk with him. Now that neither of his parents were opening up, he let his more mature side show. Maybe he was just growing up.

Two days had passed since that night, and finally Kenny laid down some plans. They were going to Savannah: a coastal city in Georgia that Kenny promised would be safer than anywhere they'd been to before. Katjaa said nothing, but she nodded nonetheless. She really didn't feel like arguing with her husband at this point – all that mattered now was their son, and nothing was going to take him away from them. Nothing.

Driving as if his life depended on it, Kenny stopped for nothing. Even as a desperate mother called out to them along the side of the road, running right in front of the RV, Kenny didn't even budge. The woman went flying to the ground, with her two boys crying out as they tried to keep her alive. Katjaa had to shield her boy's eyes from the horrific sight – both the crushed woman with her kids as well as the frightening image of her husband. This time, she would not stand down.

"Jesus, Ken! What the hell was that?!" she asked, infuriated that he would even consider such a thing, let alone act upon it.

"We did it before, remember? In Atlanta… and it saved our lives, Kat. I'm not putting my family in danger again."

Katjaa noticed that his knuckles were turning white as he gripped the steering wheel tighter. He knew that he would explode soon, so she gently told Duck to go to the back of the RV and stay there.

"Kenny, please talk to me. You know that wasn't right."

"It had to be done, dammit!"

"No, it didn't," Katjaa argued, folding her arms over her chest and giving her husband a chance to breathe. She didn't want to ask this, just out of fear alone. But like Kenny said, it had to be done.

"…did you kill Larry that night?"

She could see a slight pained expression in his eyes, but it was gone the second she saw it. And that was all the proof she needed.

"Did fuckin' Lee tell you that?" he asked angrily, his moustache twitching in annoyance. Even when he wasn't around, that bastard was making a mess of his life! Always sticking his nose where it didn't belong!

"What does it matter, Ken?! You bludgeoned an old man with a friggin' salt lick! Think about it – Lily doesn't have a father anymore because you simply assumed that he wasn't going to –"

"He WASN'T going to make it Kat! The old man had a heart attack, and I was the only one who had the balls to do the right thing! Why can you not support me on this?"

"Because you know that was wrong, honey! Lee told me there was a chance to save him…"

Great. Just fucking great. Lee made him look like a horrible, despicable monster in front of everyone! Even his own wife was afraid of him now, and he was pretty sure that Duck wouldn't be far behind. If only he could have one more crack at that guy…

"Kenny! WATCH OUT!" Katjaa cried out, but it was too late. Kenny tried to swerve out of the way so that he could avoid the train, and he almost made it too, but the passenger side just nipped one of the ladders, sending it flying and knocking Katjaa's head against the dashboard with a sickening thump. In the back, Duck merely toppled to the floor and was otherwise unharmed, except for a rather large cut above his eye.

The Florida man sat in the driver's seat in shock; his breathing matching the sound of the radiator as it hissed underneath the hood of the RV. Katjaa had her eyes closed, and her breathing was very slight. He also noticed a gaping wound on the right side of her head, which was seeping blood onto the dashboard.

"K-K-Kat?" he said meekly, trying to tap his wife on the shoulder with a shaky hand. It was no use though. Her wife wasn't moving, and with a hysterical fit of sobs he unlatched himself and her out of the RV and near an overturned tree not too far from the train. He cradled his wife in his arms, swearing and apologizing in a state of utter disbelief. Why did this have to happen to him? To Duck?

Said child trembled as he saw his mother, not bothering to wipe away the tears that were rushing down his face.

"Mommy? Please, wake up! Wake up! PLEEEEEEAAAAAASSSSSEEEEEE!" he cried, collapsing into his father's shoulder, begging for this to be some sort of nightmare. Unfortunately for the both of them, it wasn't.

And the old man living in the train couldn't help but watch in sadness at the whole scene.


	4. Will things ever be normal again?

"Oh my god… would you quit your bitching?! Seriously, Ben, nobody wants to hear it!" Lilly hissed, rubbing her fingers over her temples to try and ease the migraine she was getting.

"But what if they came back? We can't just go off wandering on our own!"

"What's left to go back to though?" Carley asked softly, shivering at the sudden gust of wind that picked up around them.

Grimacing, Ben hung his head a little bit, discouraged and a little miffed about not returning. He didn't understand why the two of them were so intent on moving on without Lee and Clementine – especially Carley, with the way that she and Lee had been getting along before this. Plus, he still felt a little guilty about giving the bandits supplies before the motel was overrun. He didn't know if everyone made it out of there alive, and Ben honestly didn't know how he would live with himself if one of the kids got killed because of his actions.

It had now been just under a week since the motel incident, and the three of them had finally been able to stop running for their lives. This restaurant provided some decent shelter from the walkers, as it seemed the previous owners had boarded up a bunch of the windows previously. There were vantage points that they could all see out of in case of any trouble, and if worse came to worse they could try hiding in one of the staff rooms. The place wasn't ideal by any means – as there obviously weren't any beds and it wasn't the most secure place in the world – but they'd make do.

"Let's check out the kitchen. Maybe they've got some leftover food in there," Carley suggested, opening the swinging door.

"Doubt it…" she heard Lilly murmur, but Carley didn't feel like commenting. Instead, she started opening drawers and cabinets in search of anything edible. To her dismay, all she found were a few cans of beans and a bag of pasta that hadn't quite gone stale yet, though they had nothing to cook it with in here.

"This should last us a couple of days anyway," Carley stated, tossing a can each to Lilly and Ben. "Make it count."

"What do we open it with?" Ben asked, earning a huge sigh from Lilly as she rubbed her hand through her hair in annoyance.

Keeping her neutral composure as usual, Carley dug through the drawers and pulled out a steak knife, handing it to Ben. He simply stared at the metal object and twirled it around in his hands, not exactly getting it.

"How the fuck have you survived this long?" Lilly asked, roughly taking the knife and opening the boy's can for him.

A little while later, after having finished parts of their beans (though Ben really felt tempted to eat more), the three of them decided to turn in, taking shifts on watch as needed. For Ben, it was really quiet out tonight – eerily quiet. He couldn't shake off the feeling that something was out there, just waiting for them to slip up.

Worse than that though was the anxiety that the teen was feeling about the motor-inn. He didn't actually want to give the bandits supplies, but what else could he do? If he didn't cooperate they would've killed him on the spot, plus they said that one of his friends was with them! He just assumed that because Lee's group was kind enough to take him in that he could trust others as well. So much for that.

Ben was just really concerned that Lilly was going to find out.

_Meanwhile…_

It had taken some prodding on Kenny's part and a whole lot of willpower, but he finally managed to get Duck onto the train and away from Katjaa. The young boy insisted that he be the one to shoot her in the head so that she wouldn't come back, which both surprised and terrified Kenny. Here was Duck, who just last week was bouncing off the walls after having found some leftover Superman comics in one of the motel rooms, but now wasn't saying anything and shooting his undead mother in the head. This world was changing him.

They met an old homeless man named Chuck, who happened to be living in one of the boxcars at the time. When asked if he wanted to tag along, he simply replied, "Well it sounds like you're takin' away my home."

"That's a yes, then?"

Whatever childlike innocence Duck had left had just gone up in flames and left back at the crash site. He didn't even acknowledge his Dad's or Chuck's presence, instead just fiddling with his father's pistol until Kenny realized and took it away. After that, he just sat there, broken and defeated.

Kenny couldn't even console the boy since he had to drive the train (not that Duck was willing to move up front anyway). Tears streamed down his face, blurring his vision and causing him to occasionally break out into a fit of sobs.

Duck didn't even cry a single tear.

_Meanwhile… again…._

Awaking with a start, Lee gasped for air and with wide eyes looked frantically around him. Remembering where he was and who he was with, Lee sighed heavily and laid back down on the couch, running a hand over his face and into his hair.

The nightmares had been going on for the past few days, and although she wouldn't say it to his face, Lee was pretty sure that Clem was awoken by him tossing and turning in the middle of the night. His suspicions were confirmed when he noticed her sad look over from the other couch.

"Are you okay?" she asked sadly, adjusting her pillow so that it was a little more comfortable than her lumpy sleeping conditions.

Shaking his head, Lee looked down at the floor solemnly. "Yeah bud, just had a nightmare is all."

"Oh, I hate those. Especially the ones where my drawings come to life and try to eat me."

"You've got some weird-ass dreams, Clem."

"Swear," Lee couldn't really tell, but it looked as though Clementine was amused with the little game they'd play every time Lee said a swear word in front of her. He wasn't really sure why it was just him that couldn't do it though. I mean, come on, practically every other word from Lilly or Kenny was a profanity…

"You're doing it again."

"Doing what?" Lee asked, looking over at the sleepy little girl on the couch.

"You're staring off into space, which means you're sad about something. Come on, you can tell me! Please?"

How could anyone say no to Clementine though, really?

"Are you like a psychologist or something?" Lee joked, laughing at Clementine's confused expression. "It's like those guys you see on TV who ask you about your problems."

"Ohhhh okay," Clementine giggled, telling Lee to lay back on the couch as she pretended to write down his answers. "So tell me: why are you so sad?"

"I don't know Clem… where do I even start?" Lee complained, rubbing his face from exhaustion.

"That's not a good answer though! I can't tell you what your problem is if you say that!"

Lifting his head and raising an eyebrow, Lee smirked over at Clementine, whose face went red. She sank back into the couch from embarrassment, tossing a pillow over at Lee's face.

After they both settled down, Lee began saying what was on his mind (besides Clementine's parents, of course). He talked somewhat about his past life, including how his whole relationship was falling apart right before he found the senator sleeping with his wife. Clem was obviously pretty young and couldn't fully understand what he was going on about, but Lee could tell that she was trying.

"I'm glad I have you, kiddo," Lee mentioned as his rant started to die down, enjoying the company.

"Me too," she beamed, resting her head back onto the pillow in fulfillment.

"Do you think things will ever be normal again?" she asked, "I know I've asked this before, but…"

"Honestly, I don't know anymore, Clem," Lee responded truthfully, exhaling with a large sigh, "Do you?"

Letting out a yawn, Clementine turned on her side and shut her eyes. "I hope so. I hope we'll all be lucky though, just in case."

"Me too, Clem. God knows I hope so too."


	5. Your only option

"Give me a break… this is perfect. Just fucking perfect!" Lilly exclaimed as she returned to the restaurant with nothing but a few packs of crackers (most likely stale by now), one water bottle and an unopened packet of M&M's.

"What's wrong?" Ben asked timidly.

Lilly glared at the poor kid before answering. "This town is licked dry. All the stores I could actually get into don't have anything left that we could use. Just empty bottles and bags…"

"Well, are you sure? There's gotta be something around here!" Ben replied, not wanting to believe that they wouldn't have any food left.

Giving an exasperated sigh, Lilly sarcastically replied, "No, I'm lying. I just wanted to give you all a hard time about this."

"Seems like you've been doing a pretty good job then…" Carley muttered, getting another glare from Lilly.

"Fuck this. If you two want to go scrounge around out there, then fine. But don't come crying back to me when you turn up empty-handed."

She then dumped the stuff she was carrying onto a counter and sat down exhaustedly in one of the plastic chairs they had scattered around. The place itself wasn't too… nice inside, even when before the apocalypse, they figured. It seemed to be a run-down shack of a restaurant, probably only ever getting business if the customers had no place else to go or if some drunks decided to come to the bar. That being said, it did a decent enough job of keeping the walkers out.

But Lilly wasn't convinced.

"We need to move on, guys. This place won't last forever and if that last run was any indication, I'd say it's time we get out of Macon for good."

"Where exactly would we go though? We don't have the RV, and we don't know where Lee or Clementine are," Carley reminded them.

"Look, for the last time, we can't just go out into the woods searching for them without any evidence of them being there. They could both be lying dead in a ditch –"

"Lilly!" Carley retorted, crossing her arms over her chest.

Huffing out a sigh, Lilly brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "Regardless, I say we just keep heading north. Kenny thought it was _such _a smart idea to take his family to the coast, but he's gonna get someone killed. We want to avoid the cities as much as we can."

"Well, what about the motor-inn? They could still be-"

"What is it with you and that motor-inn?" Lilly interrupted, shooting Ben a suspicious sideways glance.

Looking at the ground as if searching for anything interesting, Ben considered his options. One: he could tell them the truth and get all the guilt off his chest. Two: he could simply reiterate that Lee and Clem could be trapped inside, but Lilly would just shoot down his plan anyways, and Carley wasn't exactly on-board with the idea either.

_Well, here goes nothing I guess… _Ben thought with a big intake of breath.

"I'mthereasonwegotattacked," Ben stammered, much too quickly for either of them to understand.

Lilly had a pretty good hunch of what he meant though, and slowly placed her hand on the end of her pistol.

"Ben, what are you trying to say? You're not in any trouble… right, Lilly?" Carley asked, looking pointedly at Lilly's hand.

"Just promise me you won't be mad…"

"I'm not promising _anything_," Lilly replied sharply.

"You'll be fine, Ben. I won't let her try anything," Carley reassured, patting his hand.

That seemed to calm the boy down a little bit. "Ok, ok," he started, wiping the sweat off his brow. "Well, it's… like this. The bandits came out to me while I was outside the fence about three or four weeks ago, and told me that if I didn't give them a bagful of supplies each week, then they'd kill my friend."

Lilly's glare couldn't be darker at the moment, but she was going to let him finish what he was saying before she made her choice.

"Anyway, even if I refused, they would've killed me and come storming through the camp. So I agreed and left a bag of supplies out in the grate on the other side of the wall. When the supplies started drying up from our runs, I didn't give them anything and I hoped that they'd just leave us alone. When they realized I didn't leave anything there, they came into the motor-inn, and well, you know the rest."

Neither of the women said anything for a moment, which was really setting off Ben's nerves. Lilly looked like she was ready to strangle him, while Carley just looked shocked.

"You little shit! So you're telling me that you _stole our supplies?! _Stuff that could've been used for one of the kids?!" Lilly yelled, shooting Ben a look that made him feel as small as a bug.

"What was I supposed to do? I thought they had my friend!"

"Are you that fucking stupid? How could you not tell they were lying?! And even if you did say yes, why didn't you come tell one of us?!" Lilly barked.

Carley felt bad, but she was slightly nodding her head. "I hate to admit it Ben, but she's right. You should've told someone."

"Heh, so she actually agrees with me on something. How great," Lilly remarked sarcastically, before pulling her pistol out of its holster, "Now, I suggest you move on before I put a bullet in your head."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hey! None of that! Ben made a mistake, but he admitted to it! Don't go all gunslinger on him now because of it!" Carley argued, placing herself between her and Ben.

Lilly was unfazed. "You want to go down with him? This isn't up for discussion, Carley. He fucked up huge this time. We could've still been living at the motor-inn if it wasn't for this dumbass messing everything up!"

"Please! Just let me stay! I'll do anything you want! Just don't let me stay out here on my own! I'll die out here!"

"I don't care…" Lilly glowered, turning the safety off, "You brought this on yourself, Ben. Get. Out."

"You're not doing this to him! This isn't just your call, Lilly! You can't just determine if someone lives or dies!" Carley yelled, but stopped after she heard a group of moans from outside.

As Ben and Carley turned to look, Lilly used the opportunity to knock Carley over and put her pistol directly at Ben's forehead. The kid was cowering in terror.

"Leave now, or I pull the trigger," Lilly stated way too calmly, putting up a hand as Carley tried to stop her. "Don't. He's just going to be a burden on us, Carley. I'll give him the shit I found plus a couple of granola bars, and he can be on his way."

"Where the hell would I even go?" Ben asked, his eyes wide with fright.

"That's your problem," Lilly remarked, going over to the back room quickly and stuffing some stuff in a plastic shopping bag.

"Carley, please…" Ben begged, looking sadly at the ex-reporter. He was surprised when she shook her head.

"Ben, it's for the best. I can't guarantee your safety if you come with us. Just… go north. Here, take this traveler's map I found in one of the gas stations. It should point you in the right direction."

As she handed it to him, Carley hugged him tightly and placed a light kiss on his cheek. "Be safe," she whispered, before stepping back.

"Yeah, you too…" Ben responded flatly, looking dejected and scared at the same time. He gave Lilly one last look to see if she'd change her mind, but she merely pointed to the back door.

"Go. We'll take them out front, but this is it."

"Whatever," he responded, turning around and storming out the back.

They'd never see Ben ever again.


	6. Need to find them

"Alright, just like we practiced."

"Only the head, right?"

"You got it. Now don't lock your elbows, aim…"

The gunshot rang out, and a mangled undead corpse was now laying face-down in the dirt.

"I did it! For real this time!" Clementine exclaimed proudly.

"Well I'll be damned, you did, Clem," Lee gave a surprising nod. He wasn't expecting her first attempt on a walker to go so smoothly. After all, the only other time they'd practiced was on a few bottles that Lee had collected around the motor-inn, and those weren't moving targets. It might not be so easy next time, but Lee was proud that his (and Lee didn't really have a problem saying this anymore) adoptive daughter was coming along so quickly.

"You'll be a seasoned pro in no time, Clem," Lee praised, hopping over the stream as the girl did the same.

Clem and Lee decided to leave the cabin behind and find some way to get to Savannah. If there was any chance that Kenny may have been right about there being boats (though it still irked him to no end), then they had to take a chance. Lee wasn't too sure how they'd fare walking up north – as much as she'd like to believe that she could handle herself out here, Clementine still was only nine years old.

Plus, there was the matter of trying to find Clem's parents, which Lee promised himself that he'd make an attempt at doing. If they were going to take this risk of going to Savannah, then the very least they could do would be to look out for them.

But still, there was no way of them making it that far on foot.

"Look over there!" Clementine suddenly shouted, pointing to a beat-up pickup truck that was just sitting on the side of the road. It was a welcome sight, and Lee knew they had to try and get it started, but honestly, he wasn't holding out much hope.

Miraculously, the keys were sitting in one of the cup holders of the truck, and all Lee had to do was smash the window in order to get inside. The problem, though, caused doubt in Lee's mind as to whether they were going to make it very far.

"Gas tank's less than half-full, Clem," he noticed, sitting in the driver's seat and opening the passenger door for her. "But it's all we've got for now."

"Cool! I've never sat up front before!" Clem exclaimed, strapping herself in.

Lee chuckled and started the ignition before pulling out onto the dirt road. "For real?" he asked.

"Yeah… my parents always made me stay in the back seat. They said it was for safety or something."

_Great, now I'm the irresponsible adult here, _Lee mentally scolded himself. But what other choice did he have? Besides, it wasn't like there were going to be other drivers out here.

Clementine started to fiddle around with the radio controls for volume and such. She wasn't entirely sure what each button did, and it didn't really matter because there weren't any stations on the air anymore, but she liked to play around with things and see how they worked.

"The guy who owned this had to have had some CD's lying around somewhere. There might be some things in the dashboard in front of you, Clem," Lee informed as she opened it up.

True to his word, the CD's sat in their covers, though they had a layer of dust on them so thick that they probably hadn't been listened to in years.

"Better than nothing, I guess," Clementine murmured, opening up the case and placing it inside the slot. Even after a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen.

"Where's the music? I can't hear anything," Clem complained, turning the volume switch up as far as it could go but still hearing nothing.

Lee knew better though.

"Sweet pea, it's gonna come in a sec. You should probably turn it d-"

The effect was immediate, as the music blared throughout the truck and wracked their eardrums. Lee quickly turned the dial back to a reasonable level and rubbed his right ear painfully.

"I think my ears are bleeding," he stated, chuckling a little as he said it.

"What? I can't hear you, Lee! My ears fell off!"

"I said… oh you got jokes now, do ya? Very funny Clem," Lee said sarcastically, earning a fit of giggles from the young kid. It was always entertaining to have her around. You'd never be bored, that's for sure.

About an hour had passed since they found the truck, and the entire ride Clementine had been flipping through CD's that she found in the compartment.

"What does "explicit language" mean, Lee?" she asked, turning the case over in her hands.

"It's got swear words in it."

"Why would anyone want to put swearing in a song? That seems bad to me."

"It is, Clem. How's about you pick something else?" Lee suggested, noticing a sign that read: Savannah – 100 miles. They were getting a little bit closer at least. But Lee was almost completely sure that they'd have to ditch the truck before they reached their destination.

"Hmm…" Clementine pondered, reading aloud the next candidate, "Uncle Reggie's Family Jewels. What are family jewels?"

"How about I just roll down the window and let some fresh air in here, alright?"

Sure enough, their truck had completely run out of gas, but thankfully they were within walking distance of the city. Lee could see it from a distance, and he put Clementine on his shoulders so she could see as well.

"They've got to be somewhere in there," Clementine remarked, squinting her eyes to catch any signs of movement within the city.

"Do you remember where they were staying? Was it a hotel or something?" Lee asked, placing her back down on the ground and pulling out a map he picked up in the truck.

Scratching her chin, Clementine thought hard for a moment. "Hmm… I've only been there once, but I remember they had the best tasting desserts! It's called the Meh… Mar…"

"Is this it? The Marsh House?"

"Yes! That's it!"

"Alright, well we'll go down there and take a look. But we have to be careful ok-"

"_Can't wait for you to get to Savannah, Clementine. I've got your parents right here! Now, what I need-" _the voice cut off before they could hear any more.

"Oh my god…" Lee whispered, staring at Clementine's walkie-talkie that she held at her side.

All the little girl could manage to get out was a meek little "sorry", and she looked up at Lee with fearful eyes.

"Clementine…"

"He told me a few nights ago that he knew where my parents were! I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry!"

"Jesus… we can't go down there, Clem."

"No!" Clem yelled, furrowing her eyebrows and folding her arms. "We have to! My parents are down there! I need to find them!"

Lee noticed how worked up she was getting from this, and he was worried that in her haste she might slip up and draw too much unwanted attention. So he tried to calm her down as best he could.

"Sweet pea, whatever that man told you isn't true. He doesn't have your parents, Clem, trust me. He could be dangerous," Lee warned.

"I need to find them!" Clem yelled, pulling out her pistol and heading down the path to Savannah, "And I'll do it with or without you!"

Ouch, that stung. Lee was sure that she didn't mean it, but it hurt just the same. He was sure it was just the emotions getting to her, and the doubts that were definitely starting to form in her mind.

He followed her, pulling out his own pistol and scanning the area. He just hoped that whatever was to come wouldn't kill them both.


	7. Of trains and restaurants

"FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKK!"

"Easy there, son," Chuck soothed, stepping out of the boxcar, "I don't know much about you two, but we can get through that. We've got a god-damn train!"

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Kenny stared at the ground in annoyance. "That thing's not full of milk, Charles. It's gas, or diesel – something that'll explode."

At this point, Duck stepped out and looked to see what the problem was. Hanging off the bridge was a massive tanker-truck, and it didn't seem to be too secure. He'd ridden in one of those once with his dad, but it wasn't nearly as large as this one.

"You two seem pretty formidable, maybe we can try to cut it down somehow…"

"That's my son, you old bastard… He's eleven for Christ's sake! What are we-"

"If you all keep yelling like that, you're gonna get your face chewed off!" called down a voice from on top of the bridge.

The three of them looked up to see a Persian man and a dark-skinned girl staring at them from up top. "Are you guys gonna be trouble?" the woman asked.

"Depends. Who's asking?" Kenny retorted, not really feeling like trusting any more strangers right now.

"We are."

_Of course._

"Looks like you guys have a problem with your train," the man stated.

"Yeah, you're standing right in front of it," Kenny responded flatly.

The woman didn't look impressed. "You know, we would've just kept moving if we knew you were going to be like that."

"Yeah? Well, why aren't you gone then?"

"Dad…" Duck warned, not wanting his father to start a fight on top of everything else.

"Come on, man, don't be like that. How about you send one of your guys to come up here and we can talk things out? We can help-"

"Omid…" the woman scolded, folding her arms over her chest.

Kenny held his arms in exasperation. "Take a look around. We aren't exactly in any position to come up there."

"I'm sure you can manage," the man known as Omid replied.

Sighing heavily, Kenny turned back towards Chuck and Duck. "If shit goes sideways up there, just forget about me and run, got it?"

"No," was Duck's immediate reply.

"Duck, this isn't up for debate. You've got your gun and Chuck does too. I'm your father, and if I tell you to run, you run. Just… stay safe, alright?"

Instead of replying, Duck simply turned his gaze away and walked back to the train. Whatever connection he and his son may have had was dying, and a large part of it was left back with Katjaa.

He then turned to Chuck, and gave him a glare. "I'm trusting you with my son's safety, got it? I swear to god if you try to pull anything I'll…"

"Get going. I'm not nearly as much of an asshole as you think I am."

Kenny slowly made his way up the ladder, pausing only once to make sure he could still see his son. By the time he got up to the bridge, he could already see that the woman was less than pleased with him. Frankly, Kenny didn't give a damn.

"Hey," the man started, gesturing to himself and his presumable girlfriend, "Name's Omid."

"And I'm Christa," she stated begrudgingly, glancing down at the train. "Who are they?"

"I'm Kenny, thanks for asking," he sarcastically replied, "The kid is my son, Duck, and the old man's name is Chuck. We found him in one of the boxcars. Now will you help us or not?"

"That depends. What do we get in return?" Christa questioned, "Seems to me like there'd be a lot of stuff on that train that you wouldn't need anymore."

"If there's anything left over that we can't use, you're welcome to it."

"Not good enough," Christa retorted, but Omid cut her off.

"What Christa means is that you guys look like you could use an extra pair of hands to help out. Mind if we tag along on the train?"

"That's not what I meant at all!" Christa argued, gaping at her boyfriend. Kenny could already tell that he'd never get along with this woman.

After hashing out the terms and checking out the gas station up the road (which contained two walkers that gave Kenny a close call), he and Omid were back up on the bridge ready to cut the tanker down.

"Come on, hurry up with that thing would ya?" Kenny yelled, not noticing the horde of walkers coming until his son started yelling. "Shit! Cut it Omid! We've gotta go now!"

"Almost there! You're a real son of a bitch aren't ya?"

Kenny didn't know if that meant him or the tanker, but none of that mattered now. He was completely shocked at just how many of those things were heading their way. It was like a sea of walkers closing in on them. If they didn't do something soon…

"Got it!" Omid cheered in victory as the end part of the tanker slowly went down, but Kenny didn't notice that one of the metal poles shot out and was coming right towards Omid.

Before either of them could blink, Omid was swept off the bridge and tumbling down below, ending with a sickening crack and a dead body sprawled out on the ground. Christa cried out in grief, but that emotion was almost immediately replaced with anger as she shot at Kenny. The bullet ricocheted off the metal of the bridge, but she wasn't giving up.

"You son of a bitch! I'll kill you!" she screamed, taking aim and firing once again, this time grazing a part of Kenny's arm. He winced in pain, but luckily there wasn't any shrapnel stuck inside of his arm. What he was really worried about right now was the safety of Duck.

He was about to slowly creep out and look for an opening, when he heard another loud bang fill the air. Oddly enough though, he didn't think it was directed at him.

Glancing over the metal bar, he saw Christa lying in agony upon the ground with her leg bleeding down her jeans. Standing right beside her… was none other than his son.

"D-Duck?" he whispered, not loud enough for anyone else to hear, but just to make sure that this wasn't just some messed up dream and that his eleven year old boy didn't just shoot Christa in the leg.

"Urrghh…" she grunted through gritted teeth, her eyes bloodshot and her hands clutching the wound on her leg. As she looked at Kenny as he came down the ladder, all she felt was rage.

"So we help you shitheads with the train, and this is how you repay us?!" she yelled, more so at Kenny than anyone else. "You're sick… I bet you people had this planned all along! Make some shitty promise to repay us, let us cut the tanker down and then leave us here to die!"

Kenny tried to tell her that it was an accident, but she was done being reasonable with him.

"NO! I knew we should've left when we had the chance! Now look what you've done! Omid's fucking dead! And I might as well be too! This world is perfect for sick fucks like you…"

He felt guilty, he really did this time, but the comments she was making about Duck were too much for him to handle. Nobody talked about his son like that.

"Leave her to the walkers…"

"What?! Son, that's downright distasteful! If you do this, there's no coming back! You'll regret it for the rest of your life!" Chuck argued, starting to question whether he should be travelling with this man after all.

"What do you suppose we do with her then? If we take her with us and fix her up, she'll only end up murdering us in our sleep!"

"Then put her out of her misery!"

Glancing worriedly at the approaching horde, Kenny sighed in frustration. "Alright, whatever we're gonna do, it has to be now!"

The two older men could just barely hear it, but they could've sworn that Duck said "sorry" before the gun went off. Christa wasn't moving at all now, as a large bullet hole now pierced through her head.

Chuck was too shocked to speak. Kenny was terrified at his boy's sudden change in behaviour over the past few days, but he _always _had something to say.

"Duck… you didn't have to do that…"

"Who would then?" was his reply, as he took one last look at Christa before making his way back to the train. Snapping out of their stupor, Chuck and Kenny slowly followed him, with Kenny lighting a match and throwing it near the fallen gas tank in an effort to slow their pursuers.

The ride to Savannah was as quiet and slow as could be.

_Meanwhile…_

"Damn it, there's too many of them!" Lilly yelled, smashing a walker's brains in with a frying pan she found in the kitchen to avoid wasting ammo.

Carley was having similar troubles. All she was using was a rolling pin that she found in one of the cupboards, and she knew that soon the thing was just going to break in two.

"Alright, we need to make a break for it! Back into the restaurant, grab our stuff and then we get the hell out of here!" Carley suggested, and Lilly was quick to agree.

As fast as their legs could carry them, they sprinted back into the restaurant, and Lilly quickly held the door shut, leaning against it with all of her weight.

"Get the stuff, hurry!"

"I'm on it!"

Rushing to the back, Carley grabbed everything they could possibly need and started stuffing it all in her backpack. She could hear the moan and groans of the walkers trying to break in through the front, and she could only hope that Lilly was alright.

"CARLEY! HURRY THE FUCK UP!" Well, nothing really changed there.

Zipping up the bag and placing it on her back, Carley yelled at Lilly to run out the back with her. As soon as Lilly let go of the door, the walkers started barging in, tripping over one another in an attempt to get at their next meal.

It would have been pretty funny if they weren't trying to eat them.

"Where are we going?" Lilly huffed as she ran alongside Carley, who seemed to be slowly losing breath as well.

"We need to get to Sav-"

"You've got… to be kidding me… huff…"

"No time for arguing," Carley said defiantly, "Knowing Lee, he would've taken Clementine there to find her parents."

"What makes you think they're even alive?" Lilly questioned doubtfully, "And even if they are, we can't just go off running there. We'll die if we try to!"

"Just like we sent off Ben?"

Lilly didn't comment, instead just grunting in annoyance and accepting that maybe for once, Carley could've been right about this. What other choice did they have now, anyway?


	8. Savannah

"They… they have to be… here…" Clementine wheezed, having just spent the last five hours or so with Lee scrounging around Savannah, trying to find an opening to the Marsh House. They had to be really careful with all the walkers roaming around; they didn't realize just how packed this place would be.

_Probably all had the same idea… _Lee thought to himself, glancing out across the pier where there wasn't a single boat to be found. He wondered for only a second if Kenny and his family got out, but then he realized that he didn't care. Harsh, he knew, but that blowhard abandoned them to their own fates.

"Wait!" Lee whispered, tugging on Clem's arm and dragging her back before shooting a walker in the head.

"That was close," Clementine muttered, catching her breath.

"You said it," Lee agreed, "Come on. That sound's gonna draw more of them. We need to get off the street."

"But it's not too far away now…"

"Clem…"

The girl huffed in sadness, but didn't bother arguing with him. They were both starving and tired, which were two things that they couldn't afford to be right now. Lee pulled into what appeared to be a church, with the large bell at the top and the chapel… Yeah, definitely a church.

"We'll stay here for the time being, and then try going back out in a few hours. Sound fair?" Lee asked, setting his equipment down on one of the pews.

Clem shrugged her shoulders and started to look around the place, not really answering Lee at the moment.

That little girl was worrying him. This whole trying to find her parents thing was driving a wedge right between them, and it suddenly felt as though Lee was intruding on her family life. He should've expected it; after all, he wasn't actually related to Clem. But all this shit just made him care about her more than he could've possibly imagined.

He just hoped the wedge wasn't in so deep that their relationship couldn't be repaired.

_Might as well have a look around, _Lee mused, examining parts of the church. Despite the rest of the city deteriorating, this place actually looked pretty well intact. There weren't any real signs of forced entry (the door was unlocked when they found it), and the front podium was still undamaged. Even the ceiling rafters were still holding strong.

"Wait, what's that?" Lee wondered, thinking that he saw a shadow up above them. He pulled out his pistol and crouched down, telling Clementine to stay close to him.

Suddenly, the church bell went off and rang throughout the church. This had them both acting awful paranoid and nervous.

"Why are they doing that?" Clementine asked, holding onto Lee's arm.

"I don't know," he admitted, "But they're gonna bring all the walkers down on top of us. There's a set of stairs over there. Maybe we can take them by surprise."

Not worrying about making a sound since the bell was already so loud, Lee and Clem hurried up the stairs. They were made out of wooden planks that seemed pretty rickety, and as Lee was about to go up the last few steps and confront this mystery bell-ringer, one of the boards broke underneath his weight and trapped him.

"Are you ok?" Clem asked with concern, trying to pull him up.

"Yeah, sweet pea. Don't worry, I'll get out of this. We just need to…"

"NO!" she suddenly yelled out with wide, terrified eyes, and as Lee turned around his face went as pale as a sheet.

A young-looking woman with blonde hair had a grappling hook only inches from Lee's head. If Clementine hadn't said something, Lee was almost certain he'd be dead.

"You're not geeks…" she stated, pulling her weapon back to her side.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Lee blurted out, not looking back to see Clem's disapproving stare. "First you ring that bell like a crazy person, and then you try to murder my ass?"

"Well, you didn't have me much to go on now, did you?" she retorted, turning back around and heading upstairs again.

"Wait! You can't just leave him here!"

The girl turned her head to see Clementine staring her down, holding a look that would've convinced even Larry if he was still alive. Giving a big sigh, she came back down and held one of Lee's arms while Clem had the other one. As a team, they able to pull him up safely with only a few cuts on his leg. Nothing he couldn't shake off.

"If you two want to live, I'd get out of here. And no, I'm not talking about me," she warned.

"Who are you anyway?" Lee asked.

"The name's Molly. You?"

"Lee."

"I'm Clementine!"

Molly looked down at her and smirked. "You're a pretty brave kid, you know that?"

Clem smiled, her cheeks slightly blushing red from embarrassment as she hid behind Lee.

"You handle yourself pretty well, I'll admit. But what's with the bells lady? You're gonna attract walkers!" Lee remarked, brushing some wood chips off of his pant leg.

"I've been tracking the geeks' movements for a while now, and I've figured out a system that lets me move around them without getting caught in the middle," Molly explained, leading them up the where the bell tower was situated. "See? I ring this, and they come for dinner. Sound attracts those things, so it just made sense."

"Smart," Lee complimented as Clementine ran her hand over the cold metal of the bell. "How do you get out? 'Cause we've gotta get moving before they all show up."

"This way. Follow me," Molly instructed as she lead them to a ladder that ran down the side of the church.

"Wait!" Clementine interrupted, "If we can use this to bring walkers here, then maybe my parents can hear it too! We should go back!"

"Listen kid, as good of an idea as that is, it's not gonna help much. The geeks are gonna be here any second, and if your parents go out on the street…"

Grimacing, Clementine slightly nodded her head in understanding and walked over to Lee, who put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

_Meanwhile…_

"Chuck, you better get a move on or else we're leavin' your ass behind! Whoever's ringing that bell just brought all of those bastards straight towards us!"

"I'm goin' as fast as I can, fella!" he replied, popping off a couple of rounds at some approaching walkers that got too close.

Duck was running as fast as he could, but his malnourishment was starting to catch up with him. He hadn't eaten in over a day, and he felt like he was about to pass out at any given moment. But Duck wasn't about to give up. It's what his mom would've wanted, he was sure of it. He'd be tough for her.

The train had abruptly stopped right at the Savannah station, and they made an impromptu run courtesy of the walkers that were trailing them. Kenny was concerned that if they didn't move fast enough, they'd be caught and all of this will have been for nothing.

_Ding-Dong! Ding-Dong!_

"Who the fuck's ringing that?! They're gonna get us killed!" Kenny yelled, motioning for his son and Chuck to follow him. They were nearing the coastline, he was sure of it. They'd find a boat, get out on the water and go from there. Maybe they could find an island and live like the people on one of those shows he used to watch growing up. They'd survive on coconuts and fish until they could find something better, boil the water to drink it, and…

Oh who was he kidding! He couldn't believe that he just suggested they live off of coconuts.

_Ding-Dong! Ding-Dong! _

"If we find the person who's doing that, I'll ring their motherfuckin' bell for 'em!" Kenny snipped, earning a sarcastic roll of the eyes from Chuck. Nothing reassures people more than cheesy jokes from Florida rednecks.

Getting to the pier was no easy task, and as Kenny, Duck and Chuck rounded the next corner, they stood face to face with (what else?) another group of walkers. Unfortunately, this group seemed to be quite bigger than the last few they'd encountered.

Under normal circumstances, Duck probably would've been paralyzed with fear. He would've yelled and screamed for help, tried running away and hopefully have someone rescue him. But the new Duck faced his demons, literally.

"How are we getting past those guys?" he asked, clutching onto the pistol his father gave him tightly.

Kenny was about to speak, but Chuck beat him to the punch. "Go. Take your son and get to the water. I'll create the distraction."

"You sure?" Kenny asked, placing his hands on his hips, "You don't have to, man. As far as I'm concerned, you've earned your place on the boat with us."

"I'll be fine. Them boats make me seasick anyway," Chuck joked, grabbing a nearby shovel and starting to walk off. "Take care of yourselves boys. See y'all on the other side."

As Chuck started banging the shovel on the side of a nearby house, Kenny took his son through the back alley. They went up and over fallen blocks of concrete, around garbage cans and constantly looked over their shoulders to make sure nothing was following them.

"Almost there, Duck. Come on," he ushered, seeing the water at the end of the alley.

As they walked the last part of the trek, all of Kenny's hopes sank, and for the first time since Katjaa died, he felt there was no hope left.

The coast was a barren wasteland. No boats, no methods of transportation. The one boat that was there had been stripped clean for parts which they couldn't afford to go looking for, and the other had crashed onto the docks in someone's rush to get out to sea. There was a wall of walkers to the right of them that made Kenny sick just by looking at them, but he quickly pulled Duck away. No use in scarring the child even more so than he was already.

"What the hell are we gonna do now… This was it. This was supposed to be our last stop," he muttered, running his hand through his shaggy hair. There had to be something they could do.

"What do you think the others are doing?" Duck asked suddenly, the first actual acknowledgement that he was there finally setting in. Ken hadn't heard his son speak more than two words at a time all week.

Unfortunately, it wasn't what he wanted to hear.

"They're gone, Duck. We can't worry about them anymore."

"Why did you leave them?"

Widening his eyes in shock, Kenny looked to see that Duck was completely serious. It was the same accusatory tone that Katjaa had used before she died.

"We didn't have to. We could've saved them, Dad. They needed our help and we left."

"I only did it for you and Mom, you know that."

"Well Mom's not around anymore!" Duck yelled, tears starting to stain his face as he got more worked up. "I didn't wanna leave Clementine or Carley or Ben or any of them! You just didn't get along with Lee and then left them behind! They were our friends!"

"Duck, son, listen to me," Kenny bent down to his height and looked at him straight in the eye, "Lee Everett wasn't the person you think he was. He was a convicted murderer, Duck. He killed someone and was going to prison before all of this. He's not a good person, Duck."

"If he's so bad, why didn't Clementine come with us then?"

Straight to the point today. Duck knew that Kenny had let his personal feelings cloud his judgement, and now he was calling him out on it. He was surprised that his son hadn't said something earlier, though from the shock of losing his mom he could understand why.

"…Kenny? Is that you?"

Walking up behind them were none other than Lilly and Carley; the former having her pistol pulled out in front of her and the latter not really sure if she should have hers out too. Carley did seem to be relieved that they were still alive though.

"Katjaa…?"

Carley gasped as Duck wiped his eyes and sat on the ground, understanding that his mother was now dead. She couldn't believe that she wasn't around anymore. Kat seemed like such a strong woman, but she supposed that nobody was truly invincible and that the worst things can happen to anybody.

They talked about the city, what happened to Ben, not being able to find anybody for the whole month, etc. But Lilly knew they were just avoiding the elephant in the room.

"I see you're being your usual, chatty self," Kenny remarked sarcastically, "You got somethin' to say?"

"I would, but your son is sitting right there," Lilly spat.

"Same old hostility…"

"Do you fucking BLAME ME?!" Well, so much for that.

"Yeah, actually. If you hadn't been so damn touchy then maybe this wouldn't have happened!"

Carley had to physically restrain Lilly, since she was ready to tear the man's head off in a moment's notice.

"You left us all to die back at the motor inn! You left fucking _Clementine _to die! And now you want an apology?! You've got a pretty thick skull, Kenny!" Lilly fumed, breaking her grip from Carley.

At the mention of Clementine, the women could both see that Kenny felt like a dickhead, but he quickly stood his ground. He wasn't losing an argument to Lilly of all people.

"You wouldn't have even lasted if I hadn't stepped up like I did! I didn't see you making the hard decisions!"

"Yeah, right. Because killing my dad was a decision that you had to make."

"This again?! It's in the past, Lilly! And he was dead anyway! He would've turned and killed us all!"

"GUYS!" Carley bellowed, causing both of them and Duck to look at her. Or rather, where she was pointing to.

On top of a nearby hospital were three figures. Though it was difficult to see them, and they didn't really recognize the third person, they were fairly certain that they knew who the other two were.

"No way…" Lilly muttered in amazement.

"That fucking bastard…" came Kenny's response.


	9. A short-lived reunion

"I can't believe how quickly we got here," Lee admitted, sitting against the wall up on top of the hospital roof.

"It pays to know your way around. I come up here all the time," Molly remarked, going over to a fallen ladder and examining the paint spills nearby.

She put the ladder over her shoulder and carried it over to a ledge, which confused Clementine.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"You'll see."

Molly was about to set the ladder down and drop it on the other side, but a couple of bullets hit the side of the hospital and caused her to accidentally drop it. The ladder crashed to the ground below with a loud _thud_.

"Everyone get down!" Lee ordered as Molly shot off some colourful language.

"Fucking asswipe sons of bitches! That was our shot at getting out of here! Who's shooting at us?"

"Can't tell," Lee responded, glancing up slightly to get a better view. Whoever was shooting at them must have done a good job of staying out of sight, because Lee didn't see any signs of movement other than the walkers. And Lee was fairly sure they were too stupid to shoot a gun.

"Well, they've done it now, whoever they are. That ladder was our shot at getting the walkers out of here."

"There's gotta be something we can do though," Clementine remarked.

"Well, there is something," Molly rubbed the area between her eyes and groaned slightly, "but I don't think you'll…"

"No way…" Lee interrupted, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging slightly ajar. As Clem approached, Lee shakily pointed down below on the street. Walking towards them were the last people he ever expected to see again.

"Lee!" Clem reminded him as she motioned towards some of the walkers that were still around the base of the building. Noticing this, the two of them started waving their arms around and telling them to watch out. There wouldn't be anything worse than having them die as soon as they saw them again.

"I take it you know them?" Molly quipped sarcastically, folding her arms over her chest.

"You could say that," Lee replied back, turning his head so he could answer. "We've been with them since all this started. We were staying at a motor inn but…"

_Not again… _he thought, instinctively reaching for his gun. If he tried anything when he got up here, Lee would be ready this time.

He suddenly felt a small hand squeezing his, and Lee looked down to see Clementine shaking her head. She was silently telling him to be calm; they didn't need any more violence.

The walkers didn't seem to be a problem for them, contradicting what they had originally thought. The two women seemed to take care of them with ease, and even the kid took down a couple, which really surprised Clementine. This wasn't the same kid she'd met all those months ago.

"Howdy guys!" joked Carley, who was waving up to them with a big old goofy grin.

"Mind letting us in?" Lilly asked (even she had a little smirk on her face, and she's rarely happy about anything).

"Just come up through the front doors! There should be a set of stairs you can use on your left!" Lee called back, turning around before Kenny could get a look at him. For Clementine's sake, he'd at least try to be civil.

But why wasn't Katjaa with them? Or Ben?

_Five minutes later…_

"Been a while, hasn't it?" Carley smiled as she hugged Lee and Clem separately.

"It certainly has," Lee agreed, looking at the rest of them, "Good to see you Lilly, Duck…"

Feeling a nudge against his ribs, Lee instantly knew that Clementine was scolding him. _Sorry Clem, _he thought, _but I'm not giving him the satisfaction._

"What are you guys doing here, anyway?" Lilly asked.

"Molly here's been helping us get around Savannah," he gestured over to her, who merely said hi and waved back. "We've been ringing church bells to distract the walkers and move from place to place."

"Should've figured it was you…" Kenny muttered loud enough for them to hear. "You do realize you almost got Duck and I killed, don't you? Did you even bother to think about anyone else?"

"Savannah's not saveable, grandpa," Molly chirped.

"Was I talking to you, blondie?"

"You haven't changed one fuckin' bit, have you?"

"Lee…" Clementine warned, tugging on his shirt.

Trying to cool the situation, Carley stepped in between them. "How's about we just get somewhere a little… less hostile. It's Molly, right? Do you know anywhere else we can go?"

Molly bit her lip, not liking where this was going. "We can, but it's risky."

"How risky?" Lilly asked, frowning a little.

"It's damn near suicide."

"Awesome…" Kenny mumbled, pacing as he ran his hand through his hair. "As if things weren't bad enough already. Now we've got to be lead like cattle to wherever this person thinks we should go. How do we know we can trust you?"

"I could ask you the same thing. Seems to me like you aren't the most popular guy in the world," she snapped back, gesturing to Lee and Lilly.

"Don't listen to him," Lee advised. He was pretty sure that if it weren't for Duck standing right there and Clementine holding a guilt trip over his head, he'd have thrown Kenny off the roof the second he came up. "If it means getting out of here, then we'll do it. Where are we headed?"

_Later…_

"No offense, Molly. But have you lost your motherfucking mind?" Lee asked, staring at the rickety bridge with doubt. It didn't seem sturdy enough to allow all of them to cross, and, if he was being honest with himself, Lee was a little bit scared of heights.

Rollercoasters were never a problem for him growing up, since at least he knew that he'd be back on the ground afterwards (though not crashing to his death). But Lee remembered one year when he was younger, his parents had taken him and his brother to Toronto, and of course his brother had insisted they go to the CN Tower. Figuring that he'd be called a wussy and tormented by his younger sibling if he said no, Lee had agreed to go up the elevator to the very top.

Lee couldn't even open his eyes that day. The rest of his family had a great time, but Lee shook in fear and anxiety almost the entire time they were up there.

That may have been years ago now, and Lee may have gotten over that phobia a little bit, but it was still there.

Clementine noticed the hesitation in his eyes and squeezed his hand, hoping that would make him feel better. If he was being honest with himself, this was humiliating.

"Now or never, I guess," Lilly mentioned, controlling her balance as she went next. Then Carley. Then Kenny. Then Duck. Oh god, then Clementine.

Lee felt like he was one of those acrobats at the circus… the ones you hear about in the newspaper who'd fallen to their death or at least had severe injuries. The walk was agonizing, and he'd only made it halfway.

"Come on, you little chickenshit! Hurry up already!" Kenny called out. That got Lee's blood boiling, but at least he made it over there.

"How much farther?" Lilly asked, still suspicious that Molly may have just been leading them all to their deaths.

"Wait!" Clementine called out, recognizing the sign on the building across the street. "That's the Marsh House!"

"So?" Molly remarked, not really understanding and getting ready to lead them all over to the next building.

"Lee… please? They have to be there!"

Lilly and Carley watched him, waiting for what he was going to do next. There weren't any excuses this time, except that whoever was on that radio was probably still out there. Lee had a hunch that the stranger was out to get Lee and take her away, and his suspicions were justified after being shot at back at the hospital.

But how could he say no now?

Suddenly, several loud groans could be heard in the distance, and everyone knew what they were. They'd grown accustomed to it at this point.

"Shit, we need to move! Now!" Lilly ordered, running behind Molly as they quickly took one of the ladders that lead into what looked to be a sort of apartment. One after the other, they climbed in through the window as Molly locked the door. As much as she'd like to be hopeful, there was always a chance that the walkers could break in. Better to be safe than sorry.

"Everyone alright?" Carley asked, more so to Lee than anyone else.

"I think so. What about you Clem… Clem? Clementine?!"

"Has anyone told you that you're a great role model? Especially for kids, yeah you've got that down for sure, pal," Kenny remarked, bending down to put his bag on the ground. He lifted his head back up… just to get a swift punch to the jaw.

Nobody flinched or tried to stop him. Not even Duck. Even he knew he deserved it after all this.

Meanwhile, Lee had already headed for the window and shut it behind him, hoping that nobody would follow.

Too bad that he forgot just how persistent reporters could be.


End file.
